We quickly went down from the summit, and it crowd. A stop at the park's restrooms allowed us to refill our water supplies. I admit to swearing when I put the back pack back on. I liked it better lighter, emptied from its water.For our meal we settled under the parking lot. There is a rest area with picnic tables right at the trailhead. We had a 100% Hubby recipe: bagel with tuna and cream cheese. Perfect to refill on proteins.
The sign announced 4.5 miles of difficult trail and a good 5h of hiking. We knew part of it since we've hiked on the crests a few years ago.
The beginning wasn't bad. The trail is well used and we met several day hikers. Actually I have to mention how the farther we got from Mt Mitchell the more aware of trail etiquette hikers became (priority to those going up and those carrying more). Again we passed several families that took off a little fast and stopped out of breath.
Pomme and the Cachou Lajaunie candy (from Toulouse, France) on the summit of Mt Craig, the second highest summit of Appalachia.
Little mice are not the only ones posing.
Pour la petite histoire le sommet est nommé après Big Tom, un guide local qui vivait dans les montagnes. C'est lui qui se chargea de ramener le corps du professeur Mitchell qui chuta d'une cascade alors qu'il essayait de prouver que Mt Mitchell était bien le sommet le plus haut de la chaîne.
The hike up to Big Tom from Mt Mitchell is fairly easy, going down the other side not so much. It's steep. One has to be careful. In fact when we reached he small gap belowe I remembered that on our previous hike we decided to take a different trail on the way back just so we wouldn't have to hike that one back up.
For the story the summit is named after Big Tom, a local guide who lived way up in the mountains. He was the one who brought back Professor Mitchell's body after that one fell off a waterfall while trying to prove that Mt Mitchell was in fact the highest of the range.
After Big Tom it's was the discovery of summits we did not know. We kept on following the crest, sometimes clear, sometimes between rhododendrons and pine trees. The next summit was Balsam Cone, but without a summit marker and with the up and down crest and vegetation I couldn't tell you for sure when we reached it.
We couldn't decide if it was a good or a bad thing to see the upcoming summits. Sure the view was beautiful, but sometimes it's unmotivating to see there is still so much to do. From Big Tom we could already see Balsam cone, Cattail Peak and Potato Hill.
Nous étions presque seul sur le sentier. Seul un couple de marcheur à la journée nous avait dépassé. Ils voulaient atteindre Deep Gap. Heureusement ils ont décidé de faire demi tour a Cattail Peak, déja à 5km du parking. Une sage décision vu qu'il était déja 16h passées. Nous avons fait plusieurs pauses le long de la crête. Les sacs étant quand même bien lourd, et puis un casse-croute ne fait pas de mal. On a donc atteint Cattail Peak avec plaisir sachant que c'était l'un des derniers sommets avant de rejoindre le col de Deep Gap.
We were almost alone ont he trail by then. Only a couple of day hikers had passed us. They had hoped to reach Deep Gap. Thankfully they turned around at Cattail Peak, already 3 miles away from the parking. A wise decision given that it was already past 4pm. We did several breaks along the crest. The bags were heavy and a snack did not hurt.We happily reached Cattail Peak knowing that it was one of the last summits before Deep Gap.
Hubby however would have really liked to have the beer named after the summit by Highland Brewery... He had to do with an imaginary beer.
A trillium still blooming. Around Asheville they bloom around March, so it was a true surprise.
If we thought Cattail Peak would be the last difficult summit, we were dissapointed. Going down to the gap also included going up Potato Hill. When I saw it in front of us I told Hubby: "We're going back the way we came!" This trail is really like a roller coaster and the way we were going Potato Hill was more like a reverse slide. It was closer to climbing than hiking given how involved our hands were. On the other side it was very aerial too. I didn't get too close to the edge when I realised we were pretty much on a cliff.
Going down in the fir trees was pretty but it took some time.
At last Deep Gap. We were not alone, another hiker had already set his tent. The gap offers several camping spots. A bit too many in fact because we were tired, 11 miles of hiking in the legs, and had a hard time deciding. In the grass with view on the stars but morning dew on the tent? Or under the pine trees over a pine needle mattress, no view but a dry tent in the morning?
In the end we picked the spot under the pine tree. After all we still had some hiking to do the next day and a dry tent is far easier to carry.
Hubby's altimeter shows that it was indeed quite a day. One can guess our lunch break after the hike up to Mt Mitchell.
Hubby a de nouveau installé un sac à ours (enfin anti-ours). On a fait un petit feu de bois, laisser sécher les vêtements sur les branches. Heureusement quand même que personne n'est passé par là. En effet nos petits dessous séchaient juste devant le sentier.
Hubby set up the bear bag once again. We did a camp fire and let our clohes dry on the branches. Thankfully no one walked by as our underwear were drying right in front of the trail.
After 7 hours of hiking, a good meal to settle the stomach, an herbal and off to bed we went.